Tuesday, August 23, 2016

During a CNN Democratic
Presidential Town Hall held back on February, 23, 2016 with Chris Cuomo as host,
Hillary Clinton played her hand when she was asked the following question:

"Madam Secretary,
you are for a regime change in Syria. But as we have learned in Iraq, and
recently Libya, getting rid of longtime dictators and their affiliates can lead
to problems unforeseen.

So if Assad was to be
deposed, how would you direct the State Department and international partners
to install within that country a government capable of containing and
mitigating the sectarian and insurgency violence that will undoubtedly
increase, thus further destabilizing the region?"

Here's Hillary Clinton's
response:

"Well, that's an
excellent question. And let me say, first of all, talking about Syria and Libya,
in Syria, it looks like, and I hope it's the case, we will have a cease-fire by
the weekend.

I know that Secretary
Kerry has been working very hard on that and I hope that takes hold, because we
need to turn the attention of everyone in Syria to defeating the
terrorists.

And we've got to stop the
ongoing bombing that Russia has carried out in support of the Assad regime
against the Syrians, themselves, who are trying to, you know, wage a civil war
against Assad.

So I'm hoping that that
happens because we do have some work to do. And I would like it to be work
that, number one, has safe havens for people in Syria, number two, begins a
political dialogue, which was your question, how do you create some kind of
outcome that will have a more stable future?

Who do you get at the
table? I worked on that when I was secretary of state. I know Secretary Kerry
continues that work.

And the Russians and the
Iranians are the two biggest supporters of the Assad regime. So they have to be
part of any kind of ongoing political diplomatic effort.

Libya is a little
different. You know, Libya actually held elections. They elected moderates.
They have tried to piece together a government against a lot of really serious
challenges internally coming from the outside with terrorist groups and other
bad actors.

They're working to try to
unify the different factions inside Libya so that they can take united action
against the terrorists and try to get the east and the west of the country
working together.

You know, they're a rich
country. They have oil. They're not without resources. But they've got to get
over their internal disputes. And the United States, Europe, and others are
helping them to try to do that, and I think they need some time and
support.

I know the United States
has taken some actions against terrorists inside Libya, particularly ISIS
training camps, and I support that, because I want to give the people of Libya
a chance to actually form a government and realize the promise of getting rid
of Gadhafi, who had so oppressed the country for, you know, more than 40 years,
hollowed out all the institutions, threatened genocide against his own people,
which is one of the reasons why the rest of the world intervened. And I'm
hoping that we can give them the time and space to actually, you know, make a
difference for their country in the future.

CUOMO: How do you
explain the time and space to people? Because when you look at Libya, for
example, you're right about ISIS being there. The U.S. just had to bomb. The
place, by most estimates, is in a nightmare phase right now. Is it an example
for people to say, you see what happens when we get involved, you see what
happens when we take somebody out? You don't know what's going to replace it;
maybe we shouldn't have done it that way. Do you believe there is a mistake
involved in Libya right now?

CLINTON: Well, let me
make two points. One, let's remember what was going on at the time. This was at
the height of the Arab spring. The people in Libya were expressing themselves,
were demanding their freedom, and Gadhafi responded brutally and said that he
would just hunt them down like cockroaches, and made it very clear that he
would use his mercenaries -- because he didn't have a standing army, he had a
lot of hired mercenaries from around -- to do literally that.

The Europeans, who are
across the sea from Libya, you know, came to us and said, this is on our
doorstep, we need your help. Basically, they said, we're with you in
Afghanistan, we need you now to help us with Libya, because we've got to
prevent this terrible happening that could result from Gadhafi. We had Arabs
come to us and say the same thing.

We formed the first
coalition between NATO and Arab nations. Arab nations actually ran a lot of the
air campaign and other support systems. So I think you have to look at what was
going on at the time and why it seemed -- and I agree with this -- to make
sense for us to bring our special assets to the table to help the people of
Libya.

Now, I go back to this
point. They had an election, and it was a good election, it was a fair
election, it met international standards. That was an amazing accomplishment
for a nation that had been so deprived for so long." Now, let's get to the key point, how Hillary Clinton sees the world, how she sees America's historical role in the world, a vision that provides us with an idea of how she sees her potential administration's role in international affairs:

"You know, the United
States was in Korea, and still is, for many years. We are still in Germany. We
are still in Japan. We have a presence in a lot of places in the world that
started out as a result of conflict. And if you think about South Korea, there
were coups, there were assassinations, there was a lot of problems for the
Koreans to build their economy, to create their democracy." (my bold)

"We have fully
complied with the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people
of Libya, to enforce the no-fly zone and the arms embargo. Operation Unified
Protector is one of the most successful in NATO history.

We launched this complex
operation faster than ever before. We conducted it effectively, flexibly
and precisely with many partners from the region and beyond. And we are
concluding it in a considered and controlled manner -- because our military job
is now done

I want to thank our
commanders and our servicemen and women, for conducting this mission so
well, so carefully and with such dedication.

We have done this
together for the people of Libya. So they can take their future firmly and
safely into their own hands. Libyans have now liberated their country. And they
have transformed the region. This is their victory. (my bold)

Of course, they still
have a lot of work to do – to build a new Libya, based on reconciliation, human
rights and the rule of law. A democratic Libya for all its people.

But the world stands with
them. And NATO stands ready to help, if needed and requested. To help Libyans
reform the security and defence institutions that all democracies need to
remain free and safe."

According to Amnesty International, there are
still two rival governments in place as well as armed groups including ISIS that continue to
commit war crimes and abuse human rights. The actual number of civilian
casualties is unknown but AI estimates that by October 2015, 2.44 million
people needed humanitarian assistance and protection, 435,000 persons were
internally displaced, 20,000 civilians were injured between May 2014 and May
2015 and 600 civilians were killed. So much for "democracy"and "safety".

Keeping in mind that
Libya was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's template for overthrowing a
government, I find her comments about Korea and Germany most enlightening.
Basically, she's telling Americans that they'd better brace themselves
for a lifetime of military presence in Syria if the United States is actually
successful at booting Bashar al-Assad from Syria, a prospect that looks quite
unlikely given Russia's support for the long-time Syrian President and
friend of Russia, unless of course she takes on Russia, a not entirely unlikely scenario. Obviously, if Ms. Clinton becomes the next POTUS,
the United States may find itself entrenched for the long haul in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Yemen and
God knows where else when she decides that further U.S. intervention is
necessary to ensure that the American way of life becomes firmly entrenched in
these targeted nations.

One thing we can assure
ourselves of is that, under a Clinton II presidency, long-term international
turmoil and confrontation lie ahead. Generations of turmoil.

6 comments:

So thats it huh, you say " Wrong " and its etched in stone. Care to elaborate on that " Wrong " word or are you gonna leave us all in suspense? Up to this point all Ive seen from the far left is hate, war fear and more hate. But don't let me get in the way of facts it might throw you off for a loop or something.

Is what you are "just saying" distinguishable from Trump's ideas about appeasement. We can make the world a safer place by simply withdrawing from areas now contested by adversaries. They will be pleased with what we give them, and then we can be friends. No need for us to take further risks beyond our borders. Is that it?

The people of the world should not be optimistic about our leaders avoiding taking them down the path to war and mutual destruction. With new technology, we have only expanded our abilities to spread death and destruction. National pride, political agendas, religious and ethnic hatreds are some of the biggest roadblocks to world peace. Those who benefit from the production of weapons are always behind the screen constantly busy promoting war as a solution to our woes.

In truth as an answer war often fails to be either easy, swift, or true. The fact is across the world few mothers want to see their children killed and most farmers want to be left alone to raise their crops and earn a living.

Though we live in an imperfect world mankind should not bring more misery upon himself by self-inflicted injury. War tends to open a Pandora's box rather than the easy solutions and answers we seek. More on the subject of war and the reason it is not a solution to conflict in the article below.

It is not the place of the U.S. gov't to go to the other side of the planet and create new gov'ts for them and then herd over them ad infinitum. We're broke, we're getting even deeper in debt, unemployment, joblessness, people out of the work force, the number dependent on SNAP, food stamps, gov't assistance, etc. is at a record high. ACA is being doled out to foreign national border jumpers at taxpayers expense. It's insane. The military is being dismantled, the old warriors have been sent home, it's time to put our country first on the list of things Americans need to clean up. We have corruptocrats, crooks, running things. Socialism is dominant in a country that was never supposed to let that happen, and it's the people that voted for it. Socialism is NOT the answer. Let's get our act together. Another thing, if we can't admit that islam is behind the worldwide terrorist threat and fight wars to win them, there is no point in going to war.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.